So, FINALLY, the T1 arrived!
Lesson learned: pay for extra fast shipping and those gentlemen at customs find your parcel super interesting!
Which means the whole thing ended up quite expensive: 58.17€ for the player, roughly 23€ for shipping (!) then customs charged 11€ duty (which looks like roughly 19% of 58€) ... but the kicker was that the import company / shipper is charging 29€ (!!!) handling fee!
I will try to forget that now and move on to some first impressions of the Benjie T1, in no particular order. Not sure when I get around to do that video I was talking about (customs people did a number on the box, so a 'virgin' unboxing video is not possible anymore)
- It works

That was my greatest relief after waiting so long / paying so much
- Size wise it is very similar to the Fiio X3 II, but feels somewhat more 'plastic-y' despite the metal body
- I really liked that there was NO labeling printed on the housing in the product pictures, but now the buttons are labeled, which I am not too wild about. I liked the cleaner look
- I wonder if Taylor Swift knows that 2 of her songs have been selected as 'free' demo songs on the internal memory
- Nowhere on the housing does it say 'Benjie' .. when I connect to my computer it is identified as 'AGPTEKT1' ... hmmm
- It does play 24Bit/96Khz FLAC files and also m4a ... those were formats I had trouble with on other Benjie players.
- I wonder if there will ever be a FW upgrade. A player of this caliber .. I really expected a sleep-timer. Should not be a problem.
- Tons of language options in the settings
- Folder View! Yes!
- What looks like a second headphone / line out jack is labeled 'AUX' .. and there is a menu for recording. Not tested yet, but could be cool for people who want to record DJ sets!
- The haptic overall is not on par with the Fiio, it DOES feel cheaper, the 2 main buttons on the front have a very cheap 'click' to it. All 7 buttons are kinda rattling in their sockets.
- Unless the customs people stole stuff, the box really only contains the player and a USB cable. Usually Benjie player have their own (not too shabby) headphones. And I liked that the Fiio came with some sticker skins and a silicone case. Here .. nada ...
Small update regarding DAC functionality:
"The description on
http://benjie-tx.com/MP3HiFiPlayer/220.html led me to believe that I could also use this as a DAC ... so far I have not been able to figure out if / how this is possible ... I sent this question to Benjie HQ .. let's see ... "
And I received a reply: "
That's old info,and it's dropped."
Quite a bummer actually. Since this info was NOT on the AliExpress sales site, can't even say 'product not as described'
Hopefully I will get around to do a more extensive listening test. First impression is good, but my brass ears are easily deceived (also, tried with a few new in-ears, just for fun. Need to find a more neutral test set up)
update:
First impressions hands on video
If there are any questions I should get into, let me know
Oh wow, it looks like they just got that firmware together, very first version, 1 day before I ordered ...
